The pigs

Bonnie (or Charlie) and Clyde

Raising pigs was fun.  They grow fast.

When socialized, they're kinda loveable.  In a weird, smelly, bristle-y way.

They will eat ANYTHING.

We started feeding our pigs garden scraps from the beginning.  They loved it.  That morphed into old apples, molasses, and other treats when the garden was clear.

I think they grew every day.  30 pounds quickly morphed into 200 pounds (each!).

But then came the fateful day that I dreaded.  I knew from the very beginning that these pigs were food.  I tried not to get attached, but they're animals.  Of course I did.  Even after one at this size bit me in the butt while I was in their pen.    (GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW...DO NOT SCROLL IF YOU DON'T WANT TO).

The pig knock-down stunk.  No matter how humane, it was still sad.  I cried when they were shot and taken over to where they got butchered.

I watched the butchering.  Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad.  There were some parts that I had to turn my head, but overall I did okay.

All I could do was just keep thanking them for what they gave to us and remember that we gave them the best 5 1/2 months they could possibly get.

The farm seems strangely empty without them now.

The greatest ethical test that we're ever going to face is the treatment of those at our mercy.
~ Lyn White

Year's end

After a long first day back to work after 2 weeks away, I'm just enjoying a nice fire and good company.

Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself.  They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.
~ Alan Cohen

I finally have internet

So, we finally got internet.  Real internet.  We spent about 2 hours yesterday at the Verizon store, both walking out with new phones, new tablets, new portable bluetooth speakers, and a home internet system.  We got our picture taken to put our sales lady in a contest for, as I put it, "most crap bought".  Ha.

But the good news is, I can finally blog without taking 10 minutes to sign on to blogger, and 20 minutes with my fingers crossed trying to upload a picture.  Does this mean I'll blog more?  I'll try.  I haven't been using my computer at all because there's very little you can do on a computer any more without internet.  So, maybe habits will change.

Either way, I have about 732 pictures to show you, but I'll pare it down.  If possible.

CHICKENS

We bought 8 jersey giants (they get pretty massive - can't put roosters with regular non-jersey hens because they'll crush them), and later 6 more chicks.  We're a little disappointed as 5 of the 8 jerseys appear to be roosters (really bad odds!), but only 1 or 2 of the other 6 appear to be roosters.  We'll have to wait a bit more and see.  This was when they were young and cute and didn't need their water tank filled every 2 days.  

 

CEDAR SKINNING

We scored a ton of free cedar logs from one of Jonathan's friends months ago.  We're working through skinning them all.  I haven't taken any pictures lately but we have about 3/4 of them done.  Now that it's not so wicked hot out I can finish off the rest.

THE SHOP

We had a huge space cleared...same friend came with an excavator and took a couple days to clear it.  We were left with over 40 usable-for-firewood trees, which took weeks to slowly go through them, cut them into 8 foot lengths, and pile them somewhere that wasn't in the middle of the driveway.  It's hard for anyone to comprehend how many logs that it is and how much work it is until you do it or until you've done it.  People want to know what I do now that I don't go to the gym.  They have no idea.

VISITORS

Erin and Andre/Margaret all came to visit!!!  I went to glass beach with all of them.

 


Oh yeah....

I celebrated this.  I'm now officially in that ugly classification of "mid-30s".

THE GARDEN

The garden absolutely bloomed.  We had an amazingly hot summer, paired with faithful watering.  These are just a few samples.

Pole beans

 

One batch of carrots - artichokes behind.

 

A view of most of the garden.  Zucchini, cucumbers, edamame, favas, pumpkins, beans, etc.

Right side of garden and greenhouse.

The garden is now looking a little sad and pathetic.  We're harvesting like crazy, but of course all those leaves that once loved the sun are drying out.  Soon it'll be time to rip everything out and prepare for winter and next year's garden.

VEGETABLES AND CANNING

We've been freezing and canning and basically preparing vegetables any way we can figure out.  Yeah, eating some too.  Some days I think I'll turn into a carrot.  Also, taking more pictures of vegetables than an instagram food reviewer.  I'll spare you most.  

So far we've canned over 90 pounds of cucumber (we had to throw about 20 pounds out because of a glitch in the "long fermented pickle" process), processed over 8 batches of dilly beans (we threw carrots into that process too), canned or frozen over 40 pounds of carrots, frozen or eaten or given away over 40 zucchinis, and also in the midst made several batches of jalapeno jelly and garlic jelly.  Oh, and relish.  Cucumber, zucchini relish.  Throw canning tomato sauce in there too.

Oh, and not to forget - harvested raspberries and strawberries when we can.  I totally missed blackberry season (they grow wild around here).  Probably because I was too busy picking raspberries.  

THE PIGS

We got a boy (Clyde) pig and a girl (Charlie) pig.   We'll restock the freezer in February sometime.  I'll let you know how I feel about it then.  Pigs are pretty gross, really.  They're not soft at all, which I always imagined they would be.  They're bristly.  But they're social and love to be scratched while they bite your shoes.  

EVERYTHING ELSE

Yeah, this happened to my car just as I was leaving work on my Friday.  I threw a cylinder (spelling?).  But, it's fixed for now.  183,000 miles and counting.  Go Josie, go!

We bought an RTV.  It's awesome.  And yes, sometimes we just kick around in it.

We also grew sunflowers, which are now in the process of drying out in the greenhouse.  We're going to try and roast sunflower seeds.

We bought a pool.  Did I mention it was crazy hot this summer?  

Went to Silverwood Amusement Park.  I love roller coasters, but roller coasters no longer love me.  Must be a mid 30s thing.

First pumpkin harvest.  Sugar pumpkins didn't grow as big as we liked - I think too many were growing.  But it's a nice haul.....

I know it's early, but we couldn't wait.  

Oh yeah, attended an ACES training class to get another certification for HAM Radio.  Can't remember what the certification is for, but I actually learned a lot.  I also learned I want to be a skywarn volunteer.  Look it up here.  Yup, I'm a nerd.

I think that's about it for now.  It's time for me to go feed the horses, chickens, pigs, etc.

Oh, I just realized I didn't post any pictures of Atticus.  Mostly that's because he's now allowed outside with no leash and has been LOVING it.  It's going a lot better than I thought it would.  But he's been so busy going back to his instincts, he doesn't hang around a lot unless he needs something to eat or drink.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I ended up where I needed to be.
~ Douglas Adams

A tour of the garden and probably other updates

As I was guilted for not blogging lately...

After signing into my account, I realized it had been 2 months since last blogging.  Whoops.  Other than busyness, my only excuse is that I run my internet through my phone, and it's impossibly slow.  Already it's taken me about 10 minutes to get to my blogging screen.

So, without further ado....let's take a walk through the garden!

Front:

Front of garden.  Hello cow skulls!

For some reason I don't have a full front view of the garden on my phone.  My bad.  On either side of the front gate there are long beds surrounded by stone.  In the front beds we have blueberries, rhubarb, multiple herbs, strawberries, and some random bulb flowers like tulips and gladioli.  This picture is actually old, as yesterday we painted 2 grain feeders and affixed them halfway up the trellis so my sweet peas could grow out of them and up the rails.  The sweet peas I have planted in the ground aren't big enough yet to start climbing.

Garden beds:

Inside the garden are 6 raised beds of varying sizes:

Front bed:  zucchini on the left, cucumber in the bottom right, and the start of one type of carrots in the top right.
Back bed:  cauliflower, artichokes, 2nd type of carrots on the right.  

Pole beans!

Fava beans in the front (the taller ones we started in the greenhouse several weeks ago, the ones in front we planted about a week before we left for vacation).  In the back is corn.

Pumpkins!  In the front, smaller sugar pumpkins.  In the back, traditional jack-o-lantern sized pumpkins.

Edamame in the front (the taller stuff is like the fava beans - we planted in greenhouse awhile ago), and butternut squash in the back.

 Greenhouse:

This is just a sample of things in the greenhouse.  Just yesterday I planted 2 small flats of flowers to hopefully plant around the yard and in pots.  And for some reason I have no pics on my phone of the front of the greenhouse, which is my favorite thing to look at.

Two tubs of pickling cucumbers.  Yup.  Can't wait for pickles!  Also, it's amazing the difference between the cucumbers grown outside and the ones in the greenhouse.  The greenhouse ones are a lot bigger.

Tomatoes and one pepper plant (on the right).

A small sampling of more pepper plants.  There's over 15 tubs of multiple kinds of peppers planted.

And that is it for now.  I should probably take more and better pictures.

Here's a good picture to leave you with.....

Be a fountain, not a drain.
~ Rex Hudler

Almost to real spring

Mapping out the garden

If you're a baker who doesn't want to make cakes for gay people (you know, like the Bible says:  "Thou shalt not bake gay cakes"), if your hatred of gay people is that much greater than your love of making cakes - then clearly being a baker is sort of a side-project to your bigotry.
~ Sutekh, Komonews commentator

The tractor

I'm learning to drive a tractor!  Way more complicated than you would think.  What happened to just hitting gas and brake (and a clutch)?!?

Tractor!  (and reluctant smile)

The view from behind me.  haha. 

You probably couldn't tell from all the blurriness, but I was trying to drive...

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.
~ Henry Ward Beecher